Water-wheel



UNTED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

CHRISTOPHER HAND, OF PORT ELIZABETH, NEX/V JERSEY.

WATER-WHEEL Specification of Letters Patent No. 4,517, dated May 16,1846.

T 0 all whom it may conce-m Be it known that I, CHRISTOPHER HAND, ofPort Elizabeth, in the county of Cumberland and State of New Jersey,have invented a new and useful improvement in Vater- Vheels, and thatthe following is a full, clear, and exact description of the principleor character thereof, which distinguishes it from all other thingsbefore known, and of the manner of making, constructing, and using thesame, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, making part ofthis speciicaticn, in whichj Figure l is a perspective view of thewheel, and Fig. 2, a vertical section thereof.

The same letters indicate like parts in all the figures.

The nature of my invention consists in constructing a wheel with hingedfolding buckets, the outer edges of which are supported, when thrownout, by stops or lanches projecting from the inside of the rim thatextends out on each side of the wheel and incloses the buckets, theinside being furnished with a baling apparatus for freeing the wheelfrom water that may chance to leak in through the shrouding.

The construction is as follows: The wheel is formed of an axle (a) andarms (Z2) inclcsed around the periphery by a shrouding or soling (c) forthe buckets; this should be as nearly tight as practicable to avoidleakage. On each side of this soling there is a rim (d) that projectsbeyond the shrouding equal to the depth of the bucket; this rim alsoextends inward toward the axle a sufficient distance to prevent thewater from flowing into the wheel, when working in slack water. Atproper intervals around the inside of the wheel and attached to theinner periphery of the soling, and to the arms scoops (c) for thepurpose of catching water which may leak through, and discharge it bymeans of spouts (IL) leading from each end of the scoops along theinside of the rim to the inner edge of it where they are turned outward(one of these scoops is shown detached at Fig. 3. It will be readilyperceived that by this means the inside of the wheel is constantly freedfrom water. The buckets are hinged to the sc-ling and stand out nearlyin a radial line, when acted upon by the water and are supported by thestops projecting from the inside of each rim in the position (t, z", i)of Fig. 2, and when they have passed a vertical line from the shaft,they fall over 0n the scling as at (i2, 2, 2) when they would makebackwater, if attached in the usual manner, the wheel being used as abreast or current wheel.

It will be obvious that the wheel will fioat wholly or in partand thusavoid much of the friction which otherwise would take place inconsequence of the weight of the wheel; and also that the rims on eachside of the buckets confine the water and therefore renders this wheelapplicable as a breast wheel.

What I claim as my invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent isThe employment of buckets hinged on the edge next the soling incombination with a wheel havino rims projecting from the periphery toconfine the water to the buckets, as herein described,and l also claimproviding such a wheel with scoops for the purpose of discharging suchwater as may leak through, as described.

CHRISTOPHER HAND.

l/Vitnesses JN0. K. TowNsEND, RICHARD C. HOLMES.

